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Estofado de Carne de Toro (Braised Beef/Steer)

Serves 4 hungry adults (with a small second round for each)

• 2.2 lbs steer meat aka stew meat aka chuck beef
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 3 onions, chopped (yellow or white)
• 5-7 cloves garlic, chopped (more is always better and depending on size)
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2 tablespoon flour
• 3 carrots, diced
• 1 cup red wine (whatever you’re drinking while you make this)
• 3 tablespoon, wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
• 2 bay leaves
• 3-4 cloves
• 2 hot red peppers, seeded and chopped (I used two habaneros and only seeded one. It was spicy- just how I like it).
• 4 cups meat stock (chicken or beef)
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoon parsley, chopped
• a large and somewhat deep frying pan, or dutch oven
• (recommended Gold Medal’s WONDRA: Quick Mixing Flour)
• fresh baguette or french bread

Direction: Wash the meat and pat dry. Cut into bite-sized chunks. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and fry the meat briskly on all sides.

Add the onion and garlic and fry with the meat for a minute or so. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with flour. (Also, I like to add a healthy dash of one of my secret weapons, Madras curry powder and Piment d’Espelette).

Stir in the carrots and add the red wine and vinegar. Add the bay leaves, cloves and peppers, then pour in the meat stock.

Bring to a boil, cover and simmer over a low-med low heat for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Somewhere in the middle of that time, add the cinnamon (or add at the end of the cooking time, with your preferred salt + pepper’ing).

To thicken the stew, I recommend adding (at your discretion) WONDRA:Quick-Mixing Flour, as it does not clump together the same way as regular flour.

Before serving, season to taste with salt and pepper and stir in the parsley. (I found that adding a splash of cider vinegar or any vinegar at the end brightens the flavor, instead of just adding more and more salt). Serve immediately with a slab of fresh bread and butter and red wine.

Wine: a good bottle of red to stand up to the spice and cinammon/clove of this dish : Cotes du Rhone, Syrah or Tempranillo.

History: For 9.5 days every July in Pamplona, Spain, the San Fermin festival takes place. Hemingway has written passionately about this festival, the Basque country and it’s people and since, people from all over the world flock to, drink copious amounts of alcohol and (allegedly) act ridiculously insane in honor of the city’s patron saint, Firminus, who was a devout citizen and whom died a martyr’s death during the conversion of France to Christianity. This dish is a traditional stew that utilizes the bull meat of the animals used during the bull fighting and infamous “Running of the Bulls.”

(original recipe courtesy of the great book published by Marion-Trutter, Culinaria Spain)